In 1927 Primeros opened a new factory in Saxony, Germany, in Czechoslovakia the company owned a new factory in Děčín from 1932. Due to trade barriers between the countries, Gustav transferred the Czechoslovak part of the company to his sister Ella. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, he tried to save other parts of the Primeros empire, including his patents, in a similar way.
In 1936, the German Primeros enterprises were seized for the benefit of the Reich, and Gustav and his wife were arrested and imprisoned. After the Munich Agreement in 1938, the Děčín factory was also confiscated by the Nazis and the Gestapo issued an arrest warrant for Ella, who was supposed to harm the interests of the Great German Reich by her strategic assistance to Czechoslovakia's defense effort - by supplying rubber, gasoline and raw materials.
Ella fled to France with her husband and children just days before the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Thanks to the selfless help of the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, Aristide de Sousa Mendes, they reached safety, first in neutral Portugal and then in the USA.
On what grounds could the German Third Reich seize the assets of Primeros Company both in Germany itself and in Děčín?